Native American Overview:
Native American music is as vast and diverse as the people who create it, and each tribe has its own musical approach and style that has been passed down for centuries. Music is at the center of Native American culture, used in religious rituals, for healing, for accompanying work or games and for social gatherings of all kinds. For most Native Americans, music and song is not a human invention but something given to them by spirits to facilitate interaction between the heavens and Earth.
Lyrics are filled with symbolism, and singers sometimes use made-up sounds to help create the stories and rhythmic poetry. Vocals and chanting are ubiquitous in traditional Native American music, and flutes and drums are the most common instruments found throughout the various tribes.
Today's Native American music has taken on such outside influences as rock, blues, country, jazz and folk. Robert Mirabal, R. Carlos Nakai and Joanne Shenandoah are leading examples of modern-day artists who still work within the tradition while drawing upon other genres to move their music in new directions. Then there's rapper Litefoot, reggae singer Casper Loma-Da-Wa, rockers like Kashtin and Blackfire as well as more soothing fusions by popular artists like Mirabal and Nakai and the traditional style of Kevin Locke.
Native American music has never had the influence of blues, gospel or folk, but there are a few examples. Who can forget the chant break in B.J. Thomas's "Hooked On a Feeling" ("ooga chugga, ooga chugga")? Ginger Baker's drumming on the Cream hit song "Strange Brew" also has distinct Native American overtones. The rock band Blackfoot was made up of Native Americans, but the band's music was pure Southern rock. Some popular musicians have embraced their Native American roots over the years including the Band's Robbie Robertson, jazzman Don Cherry and pop singer Rita Coolidge.
In the late '80s there was an upswing of interest in Native American music, which coincided with the New Age movement. This therapeutic style of music was created to foster holistic healing as well as psychic or spiritual pursuits, and many New Age players drew on Native American chants and instruments for inspiration. A more uptempo example of Native American fusion music is tribal techno, which combines hypnotic traditional drumming styles with electronica. —Tad Hendrickson
